Some Remarks on ‘Probability’

1924 ◽  
Vol 2 (03) ◽  
pp. 161-170
Author(s):  
H. Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Divergence Of Opinion ◽  
Games Of Chance ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Modern Knowledge ◽  
Eminent Mathematician

Since games of chance have always exercised a fascination for people of all countries and at all times it is not to be wondered at that the theory of probability was first evolved from the dice-table. Possibly the earliest problem was to find the different probabilities of the various throws which can be made with three dice: this occurs in a document published in the fifteenth century, and the problem was taken up again by Cardan about a hundred years later. The first serious investigation into the laws of chance was, however, due to Pascal, who may be considered as the founder of the science. Pascal's attention was first drawn to the subject by a gambler who put to him problems relating to the game of ‘hasard.’ One particular problem seemed to Pascal of the utmost importance and led to a series of discussions between Pascal and Fermat, another equally eminent mathematician. The problem was the ‘Problem of Points’ and may be stated thus: Two players want each a given number of points to win a game; if they separate without finishing the game, how should the stakes be divided? Many variations of this were considered, even those where the players were not of equal skill, and although the problems would not be difficult of solution in light of modern knowledge, there was considerable divergence of opinion as to the correct methods to be applied.

Seven Sacraments Compositions in English Medieval Art

1929 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. McN. Rushforth
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Medieval Art ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Great Tradition ◽  
Speculum Humanae Salvationis ◽  
Church Art ◽  
The Church

Émile Mâle says that medieval Christian art in its last period had lost touch with the great tradition of symbolism which had been so important in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and still largely dominated the art of the fourteenth. But there was one great symbolical idea which survived, and that was the harmony of the Old and New Testaments; and so we find among the most popular subjects of fifteenth-century Church art the concordance of the Apostles and Prophets in the Creed, and the series of parallels between the life of Jesus and episodes of Old Testament history, which were summed up and digested in the Biblia Pauperum and the Speculum Humanae Salvationis. The reason for the popularity of these subjects was, no doubt, their didactic value, and though Mâle does not develop this side of the subject, we may say that one, though not the only, characteristic of the religious art of the fifteenth century was that, instead of being symbolical, it became didactic. We find in this period a whole series of subjects which reduced the articles of Christian faith and practice to pictorial form, and seem to have been intended to illustrate the medieval catechism by which the teaching of the Church was imparted.

scholarly journals An Investigative Look at Healthcare Beliefs and Practices During the Sen Dynasty

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
Dave Beine
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Dark Ages ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
Do So

There is not much known about Nepal during the historical period sometimes referred to as Nepal’s dark ages (750-1750 C.E.). And even less is known about the healthcare practices of the Sen Dynasty of Palpa, Nepal, which found its inception over 500 years ago, during the late fifteenth century. For this reason, anyone endeavoring to intelligently write on the subject must, much like an archaeologist, use a bit of educated conjecture to piece together a speculative, but historically plausible, picture of the healing practices likely employed during that period. In order to do so, this paper examines several pieces of evidence, both historic and contemporary, in order to infer what the healthcare practices of the populace of Palpa might have looked like at that time. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v6i0.8479 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 6, 2012 61-74

scholarly journals III. A Letter to John Gage, Esq. F.R.S. Director, by William Young Ottley, Esq. F.S.A., &c., on a Manuscript in the British Museum, believed by him to be of the Second or Third Century, and containing the translation of Aratus's astronomical Poem by Cicero, accompanied by Drawings of the Constellations: with a preliminary Dissertation in proof of the use of Minuscule Writing by the ancient Romans; and a corrected edition of the Poem itself, including ten lines not heretofore known

Archaeologia ◽  
1836 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 47-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Young Ottley
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Subject ◽  
To Come

You are aware that I have, at intervals, employed myself a good deal in the manuscript room of the British Museum, during the last four years, in researches among the Illuminated MSS. of the fifteenth century, on the subject of Costume; for the purpose of helping me to form a right judgment of the ages and country of certain books of wood-engravings, which are known by bibliographers under the name of Block-Books; and are commonly supposed to have given rise to the invention of Typography: for the controversy concerning this subject has long occupied my attention; and, although so many books have been written upon it during the last two centuries, I have become more and more persuaded, that the evidence on both sides must be subjected to a nicer examination, and sifting, than it has yet had, before we can hope to come to a right decision concerning it.

A Defence of Non-Residence in the Later Fifteenth Century: Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga and Mantuan Clergy

1985 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. S. Chambers
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
General Treatment ◽  
Close Relative ◽  
Social Standing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Interesting Discussion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Papal Court ◽  
Important Evidence

Was non-residence in benefices necessarily an abuse? It was an old problem, usually linked with pluralities, and even if the Councils of Constance and Basel had done nothing about it, non-residence had been denounced by Gerson, by Panormitanus and by Denys the Carthusian; it remained a live issue in the later fifteenth century. An interesting discussion of the subject emerges from the correspondence of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga (1444–83) with his father and brother, successive rulers of Mantua. It raises points of wider importance than the particular matters at stake and throws some light upon relations between the Italian powers and the papacy over Church appointments; in Italy there was no Pragmatic Sanction, and appointments would often depend upon official request and more or less informal ways and means of accommodation with the Roman court. It is, however, not only about appointment to, and absenteeism from, major benefices, but also minor ones. In the absence of any general treatment in depth of the subject, these documents contribute some specific and important evidence about practical problems and attitudes in Italian ecclesiastical life. Resentment in the small Lombard principality of Mantua towards non-resident ‘foreigners’ and papal reservations, professions of concern about pastoral standards and the social standing of the local clergy are among other themes which emerge; not least remarkable is that the cardinal's viewpoint as revealed in the correspondence was sometimes distinctly different from that of the lay rulers, in spite of his being their close relative and top-level agent in the papal court.

Some Early South Italian Vase-Painters: With a Brief Indication of the Later history of Italiote Vase-Painting

1929 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 30-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noël Moon
Keyword(s):  
Good Deal ◽  
Complete Classification ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Magna Graecia ◽  
Divergence Of Opinion ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Private Collections

The question of the classification of the red-figured vases of Magna Graecia is still highly controversial. So is the question of the foremost seat of the industry, and of the development of the fabric or fabrics. A good deal is being done at the moment in various quarters towards straightening out the problem, but divergence of opinion on essential points is still wide. This article does not attempt to give another complete classification, nor is it intended primarily to resuscitate admiration for works of art wilfully neglected, to cry shame on those who hurry through museum rooms of South Italian exhibits to reach the Attic. It suggests, however, that there might be a pause in these rooms if examples of the best South Italian work were always there. But not infrequently the best have been put among the Attic. Many too are in comparatively inaccessible places and are unpublished. There are several good ones in England that are little known, being in private collections or unexpected museums. Some of these I am publishing, as well as one or two of those that in their museums are thought to be Attic. I am also describing briefly the different groups to which these vases belong, in an attempt to lay down new lines on which the subject may be approached.

Old wine in new bottles: attitudes to reform in fifteenth-century England

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 193-211
Author(s):  
Derek Baker
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Line Shape ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Feature ◽  
Monastic History ◽  
The Way

Wherever one turns in the pages of those who have written about the later medieval church there are reminiscences of Eliot’s ‘Hollow Men’:Shape without form, shade without colourParalysed force, gesture without motionAs Knowles put it, ‘by and large the whole body ecclesiastic was lukewarm’, adding of monasticism in particular that ‘it had little warmth to spare for others’. It was, he commented elsewhere, ‘an age of waning fervour’ - ‘the rhythm of life becomes universally slower, and scarcely any new feature appears until the abrupt end’. To other less compelling and considered writers it has been all too easy to characterise these waning medieval years simply as ones of ‘inevitable decline’, the retreat of the spiritual tide proceeding unchecked by the vain efforts of even the most able and dedicated men of the period to halt its recession - ‘it was his misfortune’, it has been said of Marmaduke Huby, one of the major English monastic figures of the period, ‘to be born at a time when ideals were at a low ebb, when the spirit of monasticism had grown languid and when material preoccupations demanded far too much attention’. There is little to be gained from such generalised speculation, which, if the subject of the passage was not known, could readily be ascribed, with equal non-validity, to almost any period in monastic history. Nonetheless, it remains true that the particular circumstances of church and society in the fifteenth century placed massive obstacles in the way of men like Huby, and there is ample evidence of the difficulties with which they had to contend.

The Mid-Nineteenth Century Electoral Structure

1976 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present State ◽  
Divergence Of Opinion ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Electoral Structure

It is far too early to talk with any real certainty about the mid-nineteenth century electoral structure. The very materials of which it was built are in dispute, let alone the shape of the edifice. A deference school of historians is challenging traditional notions of the growth of political individualism in the period, while so-called quantitative historians are beginning to question the assumptions and approach of both deference historians and traditionalists. Serious and detailed study of the questions involved has hardly begun. Still, some comment on the present state of the controversy may not be entirely out of place. An enduring interpretation can only be constructed of sound materials; and I am by no means certain of the soundness of some of those now being put forward for our use.W. O. Aydelotte, in a paper read a couple of years ago and soon to be published in a series of essays entitled The History of Parliamentary Behavior, notes the divergence of opinion among historians on the role of the electorate in shaping parliamentary opinion after 1832. As he rightly suggests, Norman Gash in his Politics in the Age of Peel appears to be of two minds on the subject, depending on whether one reads his introduction or his text. In the former Professor Gash stresses the increase of popular influence on Parliament, in the latter the continuance of traditional influences over the mass of the electorate. D. C. Moore comes down heavily on the side of the latter influences, contending that a relatively few leaders of what he has called “deference communities” represented effective electoral opinion, which was simply registered by the mass of the electorate.

Piracy and law in medieval Genoa: the consilia of Bartolomeo Bosco

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 256-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Tai
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Legal Opinions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mediterranean

AbstractThis essay contextualizes a series of learned legal opinions, or consilia, authored primarily by the Genoese jurist Bartolomeo Bosco (d. 1437) on the subject of maritime theft, or piracy, by referring to contemporaneous records for the practice of maritime theft in the Mediterranean, archival records in the Archivio di Stato for Bosco's career, and related consilia authored by Bosco. It argues that Bosco's opinions on matters related to the practice of piracy, overlooked despite revived scholarly interest in his work, illustrate the applications and limitations of consilia as practical documents in medieval civic governance, and suggest a divide between commercial and administrative perspectives in the maritime republics of late medieval Europe. Finally, it proposes that Bartolomeo Bosco be numbered among the "economic humanists" of the fifteenth century.

A Neglected Eucharistic Controversy: The Afterlife of John Wyclif's Eucharistic Thought in Bohemia in the Early Fifteenth Century

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela K. Perett
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
The Subject ◽  
John Wyclif ◽  
Full Century

The renewed interest in John Wyclif (d. 1384) has brought this late medieval figure back into the spotlight of historians, giving rise to numerous studies evaluating his thought and its implications in the context of late fourteenth century England. However, it is not possible fully to appreciate Wyclif's importance in late medieval European culture without understanding the legacy of his ideas on the continent. According to the accepted narrative, John Wyclif's thought was mediated to the continent through the scholarly contacts between the universities in Oxford and in Prague, and re-emerged in the Latin writings of Jan Hus. This article argues that John Wyclif's thought, especially his critique of the church's doctrine of transubstantiation, found a larger audience among the rural clerics and laity in Bohemia, whom it reached through Peter Payne, who simplified and disseminated the works of the Oxford master. Wyclif's critique of transubstantiation sparked a nationwide debate about the nature of the Eucharist, generating numerous treatises, both in Latin and in the vernacular, on the subject of Christ's presence in the sacrament of the mass. This debate anticipated, a full century earlier, the famous debate between Luther and Zwingli and the Eucharistic debates of the sixteenth century Reformation more generally. The proliferation of vernacular Eucharistic tractates in Bohemia shows that Wyclif's critique of transubstantiation could be answered in a number of different ways that included both real presence (however defined) and figurative theologies—a fact, which, in turn, explains the doctrinal diversity among the Lollards in England.

scholarly journals XIII.—Observations on the Origin of the Division of Man's Life into Stages. By John Winter Jones, Esq. Assistant Keeper of the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum. In a Letter to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.R.S., Secretary

Archaeologia ◽  
1853 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Winter Jones
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Human Life ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Printed Books ◽  
Great Poet ◽  
The Subject

The name of Shakspere appears to be so inseparably connected with the Seven Ages of Man in the minds of most persons, that few have thought of inquiring how much of this charming creation is really his own. Not that the division of human life into periods or stages is so deeply philosophical that the idea might not occur to many of even ordinary capacity, but the form in which our great poet has presented to us man's course from the cradle to the grave is so beautiful and graphic, so completely his own, that it is hardly matter for surprise that the subject should have been allowed to rest almost entirely unexplored. It certainly would have remained untouched by myself, had it not happened that the Museum has acquired an extremely curious wood-engraving of the Seven Ages of Man, executed about the middle of the fifteenth century. Believing this print to be of sufficient interest and importance to be communicated to the Society of Antiquaries, I have been led to make some inquiries into the subject of it. My researches have carried me further back than I had anticipated.

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